The Mysterious Disappearing Joba

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http://www.baseballdailydigest.com/blogs/2009/06/14/the-mysterious-disappearing-joba/


It wasn’t too long ago that all we heard was “Joba, Joba, Joba.” You couldn
’t turn on ESPN without them drooling over the thick-bodied young righty and
how good he was and how much better he was going to be. Then a funny thing
happened. Joba stopped being Joba.

Before we dive into looking at what is wrong with Joba Chamberlain, let’s
take a look at my scouting report I wrote on him in the spring of 2008:


Pitch Repertoire

    * Fastball: Chamberlain is a power pitcher with a big frame whose
      fastball sits in the mid to upper-90’s and occasionally hits triple
      digits. He also has very good control of his fastball and is able to
      locate it anywhere in the zone. This also helps set up his slew of
      secondary pitches.

    * Change-up: Chamberlain has been working on improving his change-up and
      it is getting better with time. As of now it is sitting in the low-80’s
      and is lacking enough movement to make it a stand out pitch. It is
      effective enough of a pitch to incorporate into his game plan but it will
      take more work to be a solid major league pitch.

    * Curveball: Chamberlain doesn’t use his curve too much for a couple of
      reasons. For one it’s not nearly as good as his fastball or slider which
      he predominantly uses coming out of the bullpen. Secondly it just isn’t
      that effective of a pitch for him yet as he doesn’t have reliable
      control over it. It is more of a slow looping curve that generally sits
      between 79-82 mph. This approach is ok during his time in the bullpen
      when a dominating fastball and hard slider will work great, but he may
      want to fine tune it a little more before joining the Yankees rotation.

    * Slider: Chamberlain’s other dominating pitch is his plus slider. It
      sits in the neighborhood of 85-89 mph and is used just as much (and
      effectively) as his fastball. As a power pitcher, Chamberlain uses his
      hard slider as his strikeout pitch as he keeps it low in the zone and
      constantly over matches hitters as they swing and miss. When he has it
      working it is a simply devastating pitch that even if you know it is
      coming is almost impossible to hit.


Pitcher’s Makeup

    * Delivery: Chamberlain grades very high when it comes to his delivery
      despite the fact that it at times can seem a bit violent. But anytime you
      have a pitcher trying to hit triple digits on the gun you are going to
      see some sort of effort put into it. Chamberlain’s strong frame and
      powerful legs are used very prevalently in his delivery which is where he
      generates his dominating stuff.

    * Mechanics: While Chamberlain has a very good delivery, he does have a
      little room for improvement in his mechanics. The real test will be when
      he moves from the bullpen to the rotation and has to go 6 or 7 innings
      versus one or two.

    * Big Game Factor: Chamberlain is perfect to pitch in a big time city
      like New York for a big time team like the Yankees. It has been said
      numerous times that he has ice water running through his veins and has
      shown it coming down the stretch run last season.


As you can see he has all the makings to be a true stud pitcher for the
Yankees. So now let’s take a look at a few of the signs (other than horrible
stat lines) that Chamberlain just hasn’t been the same pitcher he once was.
For starters, Chamberlain’s once electric fastball that consistently was
hitting 97 mph and above is now lucky to reach 93 mph. Take a look at the two
PitchFX graphs courtesy of BrooksBaseball.net.

July 25, 2008
June 12, 2009


The first chart is against the Red Sox from July 25 of last year. As you can
see his fastball was sizzling throughout a game in which he went seven
innings, gave up zero runs, three hits and struck out nine. But then when you
compare it to his last start against the Mets in which he threw 100 pitches
through only four innings of work, you can see he wasn’t in the upper 90’s,
but rather in the low 90’s. This also made his slider less effective as the
difference in velocity wasn’t there as it once was.

Speaking of Chamberlain’s slider, that too has been a huge issue for him.
Once his unhittable out pitch, it has now become flat and much more
ineffective. Take a look at the PitchFX graphs from the same games and see
how they compare.

July 25, 2008
June 12, 2009


Look what a huge difference there is in the vertical movement of his slider.
Last season the drop was sudden and severe. This season is sort of lazily
hangs there with no real bite. Up until this season his slider was considered
a “plus-plus” pitch which made him incredibly dominant when combined with
his upper 90’s heat. But with neither one of those pitches to reach back for
when he needs it, it’s no wonder he’s struggling so much to pitch deep into
games.

Now we know what the issues are but we still don’t know why. There’s no
logical reason a 22-year old stud should all of a sudden lose his velocity
that much and forget how to throw his devastating slider. This leads me to
believe one of two things. Either it’s a.) he’s injured or b.) it’s his
mechanics.

I’ll scrap the injury part right away because there is no way the Yankees
would be trotting out the man who was anointed their future savior if he was
injured. Especially the way they keep him on such a short leash with pitch
counts. This option just doesn’t make sense.

I have spent a lot of time scouting and analyzing Chamberlain the past couple
of seasons. My initial analysis of Chamberlain this past spring and early on
in the year is that he wasn’t pitching the same as he did in the past. He is
a mess right now with his delivery. Here’s what I have most notably seen:

    * He isn’t tucking his front shoulder in causing his shoulder to fly
      open.

    * That in turn is messing up his arm action which hasn’t been consistent
      all season.

    * When he rears back to throw his slider his arm is trailing behind him
      too much which is why his slider isn’t coming out of his hand properly
      and generating as much spin causing it to be flat.

    * Then to finish things off he isn’t landing with ease anymore as he
      plants his foot. His leg is locking up as he lands causing his body to
      not give a full follow through.

Those are the main pieces as to why his mechanics are currently messed up.
Now these things aren’t happening consistently with every single pitch, but
it is happening enough to where it is severely affecting his performance.

The Yankees how have a huge dilemma on their hands. They have a pitcher who
is lucky to give them 5 or 6 innings each time he takes the mound as a
starter (and still hits the 100 pitch mark). This isn’t just inconvenient as
a “superstar” pitcher, it also kills their bullpen which has enough
problems as it is.

Based on all of this, I’d say the Yankees have no option but to put Joba
back in the bullpen. It has been the only place he has consistently been
effective and he seems to be so much happier out there. New York needs that
intensity back. They need the “Joba Rules” back. Maybe, just maybe, a
return to the bullpen is just what he needs to get himself back on track. If
Joba can’t find his velocity he is in some pretty big trouble as he doesn’t
have the accuracy to be a control pitcher. He needs the gas and the hard
slider in order to be an effective major league pitcher.

And in New York who knows how long his leash will be before they move onto
someone else.

--
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◆ From: 140.112.5.3
推 kimifort:有人要翻譯嗎 <(￣︶￣)>
推 shongzcwea:簡單翻  mechanics跑掉讓他直球不夠快和滑球不像之前
→ rie779:Joba, Joba, Joba 然後呢?? 接下來再說什麼 orz
→ shongzcwea:一樣unhittable  或許放回牛棚可以讓他找回自己
推 shongzcwea:中間夾雜了Joba的Stuff和Makeup介紹以及他mechanics哪
→ shongzcwea:裡不同
推 akainorei:投教.....越來越黑了
推 GameDemon:WWE看太多 眼殘以為來到摔角板的 Mysterio
推 sychang:頭叫:我無法在Joba身後一球一球指導他
推 nedekwn:頭叫:我能做的都做了
推 ninetales:只能說投教對使用說明書好像都沒怎麼讀...AJ讓人最擔心
推 sxxs: 投教：　沒關係　我位置穩得很呢　.....
推 winnabe:投教快黑到發亮了... 科科
→ agoodjob:王建民，甲爸，再來是誰呢，科科..
推 upscom:AJ跟CC只簽一年嗎 X
推 jwencmc:忽然覺得  小王很厲害....有這種投叫  還可以恢復球速
推 Minamii:Eiland黑到發亮了...是說Hughes好像還OK
→ Minamii:不過去年一整年Hughes跟IPK也是慘不忍睹 Joba又受傷
推 xephon:改姿勢魂...
推 alphameric:這個投教是不是賈霸,休斯,總統在3A的指導教練?
→ alphameric:記得當初古錐會被解職,就是因為說3A投教比較瞭解他們,
推 FlyFreedom:是
→ alphameric:所以才扶正?!
→ alphameric:喔喔,謝謝F大
→ FlyFreedom:我是回你第一句，古錐會被解職是否因此為主因我不知道
→ DLCSEA:Eiland扶正的確是因為這樣.古椎解職有一部份是因為torre走
推 alphameric:ok,瞭了!謝謝^^　不過單就這點看,目前看來也沒太大成效
推 DLCSEA:是阿 去年的休斯,總統投成那樣 今年又這樣...
→ DLCSEA:先發 牛棚..都有些問題
推 whyy:上上場Joba投七局 球速有出來 大概怕被媒體教到牛棚去
推 danny789:只要 Fire Eiland, Joba 就會正常了 ...
→ leocheng:可能不止Joba會正常哦 搞不好整個rotation都會正常起來XD
推 hiro1221:投手教練都不會發現問題 還要等別人告訴他